A cool sea breeze blows into the cabin from a vent on the deck of the transport ship, adding a hint of saltiness of Mediterranean water to the turbid air. Feng. Baron Wycombe led the platoon commanders of the battalion companies to check the maintenance of the battalion's armored vehicles.

Normally, for safety reasons, combat vehicles are required to unload ammunition and part of fuel during transportation, but this time, the superiors specifically allowed all fuel ammunition to be retained on the vehicle, considering that the armored reconnaissance battalion might need to be put into combat immediately after it came ashore.

Feng. After embarking from the unit, Major Wycombe made a circle of the cabin every four hours to check the soldiers' routines and check the safety of equipment, ammunition and supplies. The crew of the transport ship joked that the major acted more accurately than the bell.

"Looks like everything is fine, sir. In six hours we will be in Alexandria, and I suggest you go back to the cabin and rest while we take care of the rest. "Captain Cote, the commander of the company directly under the battalion headquarters, suggested.

"Thanks, Captain Kurt, I don't have any problems at all." Major Wycombe's face was a little pale, the baron was slightly seasick, and out of the duty of the battalion commander and the pride of the Wehrmacht officer, he insisted on moving according to the schedule he had set, but the officers below knew very well that the officer was almost at the limit.

"Sir, you can go to the infirmary and ask the doctor to get a sleeping pill." Battalion Communications Staff Officer Captain Durman reminded with concern.

"How many times have I said it, Durman, that there is nothing wrong with my body." The attitude of the battalion commander was extremely resolute.

"Well, you don't have to get so excited, it's just a suggestion." Dulman hurriedly appeased the baron, who wanted to save face.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, there were no specific seasickness medicines, and although some psychotropic drugs had a palliative effect, they all had serious toxic side effects.

"It's only six hours, Cotter, wait until two hours before disembarkation, get the soldiers ready for all disembarkation, I don't want to see the last time I saw it again." Major Wycombe said with a calm face.

The battalion commander was referring to what happened on the day of the landing of the armored reconnaissance battalion in Tunisia, because of the order in which the various units disembarked and because of the change in the temporary order of the command, as a result of which there was a disconnect between the units of the reconnaissance battalion, which eventually led to a bunch of people and vehicles jammed on the narrow pier trestle, and the landing site was chaotic.

"Rest assured, battalion commander, that won't happen again." Kotli saluted, the iron palm on the heel of his boot clattering against the steel deck.

"The list of the first disembarking troops is here, Your Excellency Admiral." The Chief of Staff of the Afrika Korps, William. Major General Hasey pushed a document to Georg. Feng. Artillery Admiral of Quchelel.

"Have you checked it all carefully?" Quchreel looked down at the list.

"I've double-checked, and there's no problem, Your Excellency." Hassey nodded in reply.

"Tell me the order." Quchellel signed the document and handed it to the communications officer standing on the side.

"Yes, General." The major took the papers, and stood up with the heels of his boots slammed.

"Now, let's rehearse the battle plan, gentlemen." Quchellel stood up and walked over to the military map hanging from the wall of the cabin.

"The Führer's order to us makes it very clear that this is the first battle of Germany's return to the Middle East, and that the Afrika Korps is shouldering the expectations of the German people, so it must be victorious, and there is absolutely no room for defeat." Qu Hillel took the whip from his staff officer and tapped the map hard.

Quchrell was a very traditional German commander, having fought in World War I more than 20 years ago as an artillery lieutenant and company commander, during which he was promoted to captain, and by the end of the war he had become the chief of operations of the German Reserve Eighth Division. He was retained by the Germans after the war, which is a testament to the talent of this officer.

During the era of the 100,000 Army, he served successively as an artillery company commander, a tactical instructor at the Munich Infantry School, a major inspector at the Wehrmacht Military School, an instructor at the German Artillery School, an artillery commander of the 1st Prussian Military District, a major general at the German Military Academy, a judge at the German Military Tribunal, and finally in 1937, von Von. Quchrell was promoted to lieutenant general of artillery, commander of the First Military District of East Prussia and commander of the First Army of the Wehrmacht.

He is a general who has risen step by step from the grassroots level and relied on personal efforts, and unlike those officers who have remained in the command structure, he has an extraordinary wealth of combat experience and life experience, and at the same time has extraordinary wisdom, perseverance, and courage.

At the time of the German invasion of Poland, he served as the commander of the German Third Army, which belonged to Army Group North under General Bock, whose command ability and military wisdom were fully demonstrated in the Polish campaign, and the Third Army of the Army, which was behind the installation of the armor cluster by Goodry, fought all the way to break through several defensive lines of the Polish army in eight days, and finally encircled Warsaw with the Tenth Army, and finally captured this world-famous city.

For his outstanding performance in the Polish campaign, Qucheller was awarded a valuable knight's Iron Cross, and the bright future of the commander of the army group seemed foreseeable at that time.

But at this moment, another excellent quality of his possession manifested itself, his traditional military education, which made him extremely disgusted with the actions of the SS special forces in Poland, and the lieutenant general of artillery made no secret of his dissatisfaction with these bloody massacres, as a result of which the complaints of the lieutenant general were seen as a sign of disloyalty by the Nazi leadership, and finally the lieutenant general's sense of justice led to him being deprived of the command of the army group, and then he was thrown into the cold palace, and was almost transferred to the reserves.

However, when Hitler was preparing to launch a campaign on the Western Front, due to the lack of experienced army commanders, Hitler finally followed the advice of the army commander and chief of staff, and Qu Hillel was reactivated, still under the command of General Bock, commanding the German Army's Eighteenth Army, and launching an attack on the Netherlands on the right flank of Army Group B.

Qucheller still played very well, and soon took the Dutch town of Rotterdam, forcing the Dutch defenders to surrender to the Germans, and in the subsequent battles of Belgium and France, the 18th Army became the sharpest spearhead in the hands of Bock, crushing the stubborn resistance of the French army again and again.

As a commander of an army group with real power in his hands, Qu Hillel's rank was enough to involve him in the struggle between Xu Jun and Hitler. At that time, all the commanders of army groups on the Western Front had already stood in line, and everyone fell to the young deputy Führer. And Quchel, who had suffered a lot, fell into the most important decision of his life.

To tell the truth, he was not interested in the young deputy Führer at first, although he admitted that the planning and command of the Battle of Dunkirk was indeed very beautiful, but this only proved that Städel was a tactical genius, and did not mean that this young man was capable of leading a country. However, in view of Hitler's mental state problems, it is clear that it would be even more unwise for him to choose to support this madman in view of all the senior army generals as traitors to the state.

After much thought, Quchell finally bet on Stadler, who believed that the interests of the country were the most important thing, and that Stadler was Germany's only hope of winning the war.

As the lieutenant general proved to be the right choice, Stadler became the ultimate winner, and Quchell led the 18th Army through the remaining half of the French campaign, eventually reaching the pinnacle of his military career by becoming German artillery general in September, and then the German field marshal, who had to make a convincing feat to complete this step.

Since July, Quchler's troops have been stationed in central France, responsible for maintaining order in the occupied territories, and have not been able to take part in the landing operation against England, much to the regret of the artillery general.

As the commander of the French occupation zone, Quchelle really lived a comfortable and enjoyable life in France, and even gradually became a little blessed. The general was counting the time to return home with his fingers on his fingers every day, and when he was bored, he couldn't help but start to miss the pungent smoke of gunpowder on the battlefield.

However, Xu Jun soon found him a job and saved the admiral from the decadent days of a salary thief. Admiral Quchelel was tasked with forming a new corps and taking it with him on an expedition to the coast of Africa.

In the eyes of outsiders who don't know the inside story, Admiral Quchler may have done something taboo to be demoted to this position. Because the Afrika Korps is so small that it is simply not worth appointing a general to command.

Qu Hillel's Eighteenth Army, under the command of ten infantry divisions and one armored division, with a total strength of more than 180,000 troops. And this newly formed so-called Afrika Korps has only two motorized infantry divisions and one armored regiment under its establishment, and the total strength is less than 50,000, and the difference between the two sides is as much as three times.

And on one side is the comfortable French occupation zone, which holds great power like the emperor, and on the other side is the distant African continent, which is a wild place compared to Europe, and even a blind person can see the difference between the two.

Some people speculate that Qu Hillel must have offended Stadler somewhere, just as he provoked Hitler back then, and the new Führer was obviously more ruthless than Hitler, Hitler at most let Qu Hillel go home and squat on the cold bench, and Stadter directly exiled the artillery admiral to Africa.

Soon the reality proved that all these nonsense speculations of the outside world were wrong, and instead of falling out of favor, Admiral Quchler became a big celebrity in the attention of the high command, and the German Führer was full of expectations for this general, and let him form the African Army, which was precisely the proof of the Führer's trust in Quchler.

Qucheller was well aware of this, and when he received the appointment, there was no hint of resistance, but he soon found that the appointment had not damaged his position, but had given him the opportunity to move closer in his career.

Quchreel found that the force was not a corps in the conventional sense, and that there was no clear limit to the size of the Afrika Korps, which meant that the High Command could expand the force indefinitely, if needed. More importantly, he was authorized by the Führer, and the Afrika Army was directly under the command of the Führer's base camp, which meant that he no longer had to look at the face of the Army Command, and from then on he was only responsible to the Führer of the Reich.

At the administrative level, he is at the same level as the German theater commands, but unlike those units, the Afrika Korps has a relatively independent personnel replenishment and material supply system, and in the complex logistics system of the German army, the Afrika Army has the highest priority supply level, and can call in the required replenishment from any army replenishment battalion in the country.

In the history of the Wehrmacht, there has never been such a unit, the administrative level is high, the salary is so rich, even more than the two Führer directly under the legion, from here it can be seen that the Führer attaches importance and expects this legion, and as a person who formed this unit and served as the first commander, Quchler, has also entered the Führer's sight, if this artillery general does not make any major mistakes during his tenure, after stepping down from the Afrika Korps, he will definitely be reused by the Führer, The dream of being promoted to the rank of field marshal will surely come true sooner or later.

Qu Hiller devoted all his energy and enthusiasm to the formation and training of this unit. After all, he is a person who has been an instructor in a military academy several times, Qu Hiller is famous within the German army for being good at training, and at the same time, the troops he commands have always been known for their tenacious style, and the 18th Army in real history is under his command, I don't know how many hard bones have been gnawed.

The Afrika Korps was built entirely from scratch, with only two standard infantry divisions, the 26th and 31st Infantry Divisions, the former formed in Cologne, with the infantry division emblem being the silhouette of Cologne Cathedral, and the latter from Braunschweig, emblem with two small short legs (the coat of arms of Duke Henry III of Saxony is a lion, Braunschweig is the capital of Saxony, and the duke cast a bronze lion sculpture in the city, which eventually became the emblem of the Duchy of Saxony and Braunschweig). ）。

Because the senior officers of the 31st Division generally did not participate in World War I and lacked experience in warfare, they did not conduct rigorous training for soldiers in peacetime. The officers and men of the 31st Infantry Division, feeling the brutality of the war, were soon taken over by a deep sense of insecurity, and during the Polish campaign they opened fire on all uncertain targets, and burned down all the premises they considered a threat, creating a series of completely unnecessary atrocities that caused serious damage to the reputation of the Wehrmacht.

However, after experiencing the entire European war, the quality of these two infantry divisions has changed considerably, and in any case, they have accumulated a certain amount of actual combat experience, and they are no longer rookies who tremble when they hear the sound of guns.

Qu Hillel has no problem with these two infantry divisions, these units already have combat experience, and now they only need to rectify discipline and strengthen some targeted training, and they will soon become the soldiers that Qu Hillel needs.

During the landing in Sicily, Italy, these soldiers proved their worth as soldiers to their commanders and to the great head of the empire. The outstanding performance of these two infantry divisions on the battlefield made the generals who were once familiar with the style of these two infantry divisions shatter their spectacles.

The 26th Cologne Division has always performed very mediocre in Poland and France, and the 31st Brunswick Division has performed erratically on the Polish battlefield, causing a series of scandals. The Army Command singled out these two infantry divisions to form the Afrika Korps, and because the level of these two units was average, the transfer would not lead to a decrease in the combat effectiveness of the army group to which they belonged.

At that time, no one could have imagined that after a few weeks of training by Quchler, these troops would be transformed as if they were completely reborn, and that they were no longer inferior to the famous main divisions in front of the Italian army.

Of course, there was a reason why the Italian army was too weak, and the Italian coastal divisions in Sicily lacked advanced weapons and the courage to fight the Germans.

In addition to these two infantry divisions, which are transforming into elite units, the Afrika Korps also has an armored regiment that has performed well in the capture of Rome, Italy.

In this war on the Arabian Peninsula, these armored vehicles will be the absolute main force of the operation, and it can be said that Qu Hillel's entire battle plan revolves around these tanks and armored vehicles.

Qu Hillel knew very well that in the vast desert plains, whoever had greater mobility would have the initiative in battle. Those nomadic cavalry and camel cavalry, accustomed to crisscrossing the sand sea, are best at long-distance running, and if they do not have comparable or even overwhelming mobility, they can only follow behind the opponent's ass and eat dust, or try to run for their lives in order to maintain a long supply line, until they are dragged down by their opponents, and finally disappear into the vast desert like the defeated conquerors in history.

Quchreel is well versed in history, and he has studied the examples of those who came before him, and has learned from the experience that he has bought with blood. In his opinion, although the essence of the battle formation has not changed, the means used have made a qualitative leap, and if they are too out of touch with the times in terms of weapons and tactics, they will definitely be eliminated by the times.

The desert people are an excellent example of detachment from the times, the Saudis currently only have ground troops, the main force is horse and camel cavalry, and a large number of foot infantry, mainly city dwellers, the weapons are mainly rifles made during the First World War, interestingly Mauser is mostly made in Germany, and during the honeymoon period with the British, they also bought ten British Vickers wheeled armored vehicles.

This is a war with completely unequal strength, Germany will undoubtedly win the final victory, the question is how much Germany will pay in the battle, Quchell never underestimated the enemy, he believed that once the war broke out, the German army would encounter the most stubborn resistance, if the loss of soldiers and equipment in the war was too large, even if the final victory would affect the prestige of the Third Reich.

"Battlefield reconnaissance is the key to the campaign, don't blindly rely on the air force, ground fire reconnaissance is more effective in this kind of terrain. The enemy has lived here for generations, they know every inch of the rock and the ground here, and once the fire begins, they will be the toughest and most crazy fighters you have ever seen, and that must be remembered by every soldier. Qu Hillel pointed to the Saudi border on the map with his whip.

PS: Thank you for your support, today's update is here.

Without saying anything, the author will continue to work hard and write more exciting plots to repay everyone.